/Management

Cognitive Load Developer's Handbook

- Artem Zakirullin tl;dr: “We spend far more time reading and understanding code than writing it. Therefore, the amount of cognitive load we need to build in our brains in order to understand code is crucial.” This post looks at every decision, every trendy buzzword, and every fancy technology through the lens of cognitive load.”

featured in #417

Identity-Native Infrastructure Access

tl;dr: Download your copy and learn how to prevent breaches by eliminating secrets, including the two new chapters on Secure Connectivity and Authentication.

featured in #417

DevEx: What Actually Drives Productivity

- Abi Noda tl;dr: The 3 pillars are: (1) Reducing friction: minimizing obstacles, inefficiencies, and complexities in the development process. (2) Optimizing workflows: streamlining processes, automating repetitive tasks, and integrating tools and technologies. (3) Enabling a state of flow: creating an environment that fosters concentration, creativity, and intrinsic motivation.

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How To Evaluate Dependencies

- Phil Booth tl;dr: “One of my stock interview questions goes: "When picking between dependencies to use in production, what factors contribute to your decision?" I'm surprised by how often I receive an answer along the lines of "Github stars" and not much else. I happen to think Github stars is a terrible metric for selecting production code, so this post sets out my idea of a healthier framework to evaluate dependencies.”

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Kicking The Can Down The Road (On Hard Decisions)

- Ed Batista tl;dr: “How can you stop kicking the can down the road? A first step is simply being mindful of the factors above and asking whether any of them apply to you. And despite the wide range of possible scenarios, note a theme that runs through all of them: emotions. Fear of the costs. Excessive optimism. Guilt about the past. Overwhelm. Distrust.” The key is identifying your full range of feelings, labeling them accurately, determining which ones are preventing you from making a decision, and asking whether that response is truly justified.

featured in #416

Architecture Principles: An Approach To Effective Decision Making In Software Architecture

- Patrick Roos tl;dr: “Are you a software architect and often find it difficult to make architecture decisions in your team? This article shows you how to use architecture principles to make effective decisions in your team.”

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8 Annoying A/B Testing Mistakes Every Engineer Should Know

- Lior Neu-ner tl;dr: (1) Including unaffected users in your experiment. (2) Only viewing results in aggregate (aka Simpson's paradox). (3) Conducting an experiment without a predetermined duration. Lior discusses these and 5 more anti-patterns.

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Alignment Gets Expensive. Don’t Skimp On It

- Jessica Kerr tl;dr: “Alignment gives us the context to make good decisions in our scope. It also lets us question decisions outside our scope, constructively, because we can notice when we learn something inconsistent with our expectations. That catches discrepancies early, and gets us back on track together.”

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10 Years Of Tech Debt Research

- Abi Noda tl;dr: Abi recommends to better communicate and manage tech debt by: (1) Moving away from using the phrase “technical debt.” (2) Defining what the problem really is. He explains why in this post.

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A New Way To Measure Developer Productivity – From The Creators Of DORA And SPACE

- Gergely Orosz tl;dr: The new framework is a “developer-centric approach to developer productivity” illustrating that DevEx is comprised of 3 pillars - flow state, feedback loops and cognitive load. Gergely interviews the team behind this framework presenting their approach and implementation.

featured in #415